Story highlights

The PM asked an investigation team to see what other information can be released

Malaysia delivered a preliminary report to the U.N. but did not release it publicly

Facing anger from families of Flight 370 passengers, Malaysia's Prime Minister said Thursday his government will release its preliminary report on the plane's disappearance.

In a TV exclusive, Najib Razak told CNN the report will be available to the public next week.

"I have directed an internal investigation team of experts to look at the report, and there is a likelihood that next week we could release the report," Najib said. Later in the interview with CNN aviation correspondent Richard Quest, he gave a more definitive statement, saying the report will be released next week.

He also asked an internal investigation team to look into what other information may be released publicly next week, his office said.

In the CNN interview, Najib discussed why he is not yet officially declaring the flight -- and the 239 people on board -- lost.

The report has already been sent to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the U.N. body for global aviation, but not made available to the public.

The ICAO told CNN about a safety recommendation in the report: Malaysia said the aviation world needs to look at real-time tracking of commercial aircraft. It's the same recommendation that was made after the Air France Flight 447 disaster in 2009.

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The Prime Minister's comments didn't convince Sarah Bajc, whose partner, Philip Wood, was a passenger on the plane. She accused Najib of "political maneuvering," shirking responsibility and deflecting blame in his interview with CNN.

"I spent most of the morning with my jaw basically scraping the floor," Bajc told CNN's "AC360." "I'm just so astounded by this new shift that the Prime Minister is taking. ... He's reading from a script sheet that some qualified, professional PR person has put together for him."

Malaysian authorities need to do a better job of communicating with the families and answering their questions during briefings, she said, rather than treating passengers' loved ones "as if we are the enemy, as opposed to an interested party in helping to solve this mystery."

"Actions speak louder than words," she said. "The briefings are a joke. ... The patience level of the families group is just gone."

Malaysia has insisted it has nothing to hide and is working to find answers.

A committee representing some of the Chinese families have posted 26 questions on the Chinese social media site Weibo.

Families plan to demand answers from Boeing

The missing flight is a Boeing 777.

While pushing Malaysian authorities for answers, "we're also extending our reach now," Bajc said. Some of the questions the families have, including technical questions, "we will be bringing directly to Boeing. Boeing has a shareholders meeting next week. And if we're not getting information directly from Malaysia Airlines and from the Malaysian government, we might as well try to go directly to the source.

"Boeing is a publicly traded company in the United States, and that puts them in a position of a little bit more fiduciary responsibility," she said.

Asked for a response, Boeing sent CNN a written statement: "Our thoughts and deepest sympathies continue to be with the families and loved ones of those aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Boeing continues to serve as a technical adviser to the U.S. National Transportation (Safety) Board, and in that role we have been an active and engaged party to the investigation."

Ongoing search

As an underwater drone keeps going up and back down, so do hopes that evidence of the plane may be found.

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Photos:The search for MH370

Photos:The search for MH370

Two years after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went missing, a relative of one of the passengers burns incense in Beijing on March 8, 2016. Flight 370 vanished on March 8, 2014, as it flew from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing. There were 239 people on board.

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Photos:The search for MH370

On July 29, police carry a piece of debris on Reunion Island, a French territory in the Indian Ocean. A week later, authorities confirmed that the debris was from the missing flight.

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Photos:The search for MH370

Staff members with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau examine a piece of aircraft debris at their laboratory in Canberra, Australia, on July 20. The flap was found in June by residents on Pemba Island off the coast of Tanzania, and officials had said it was highly likely to have come from Flight 370. Experts at the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which is heading up the search for the plane, confirmed that the part was indeed from the missing aircraft.

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Photos:The search for MH370

In late February, American tourist Blaine Gibson found a piece of plane debris off Mozambique, a discovery that renewed hope of solving the mystery of the missing flight. The piece measured 35 inches by 22 inches. A U.S. official said it was likely the wreckage came from a Boeing 777, which MH370 was.

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Photos:The search for MH370

Relatives of the flight's passengers console each other outside the Malaysia Airlines office in Subang, Malaysia, on February 12, 2015. Protesters had demanded that the airline withdraw the statement that all 239 people aboard the plane were dead.

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Photos:The search for MH370

A police officer watches a couple cry outside the airline's office building in Beijing after officials refused to meet with them on June 11, 2014. The couple's son was on the plane.

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Members of the media scramble to speak with Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, director general of Malaysia's Civil Aviation Department, at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on May 27, 2014. Data from communications between satellites and the missing flight was released the day before, more than two months after relatives of passengers said they requested it be made public.

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Photos:The search for MH370

Operators aboard the Australian ship Ocean Shield move Bluefin-21, the U.S. Navy's autonomous underwater vehicle, into position to search for the jet on April 14, 2014.

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A member of the Royal New Zealand Air Force looks out of a window while searching for debris off the coast of western Australia on April 13, 2014.

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The HMS Echo, a vessel with the British Roya; Navy, moves through the waters of the southern Indian Ocean on April 12, 2014.

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A Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion, on a mission to drop sonar buoys to assist in the search, flies past the Australian vessel Ocean Shield on April 9, 2014.

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A relative of a missing passenger cries at a vigil in Beijing on April 8, 2014.

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Australian Defense Force divers scan the water for debris in the southern Indian Ocean on April 7, 2014.

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A towed pinger locator is readied to be deployed off the deck of the Australian vessel Ocean Shield on April 7, 2014.

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A member of the Royal New Zealand Air Force looks at a flare in the Indian Ocean during search operations on April 4, 2014.

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On March 30, 2014, a woman in Kuala Lumpur prepares for an event in honor of those aboard Flight 370.

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The sole representative for the families of Flight 370 passengers leaves a conference at a Beijing hotel on March 28, 2014, after other relatives left en masse to protest the Malaysian government's response to their questions.

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A member of the Royal Australian Air Force is silhouetted against the southern Indian Ocean during the search for the missing jet on March 27, 2014.

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Flight Lt. Jayson Nichols looks at a map aboard a Royal Australian Air Force aircraft during a search on March 27, 2014.

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People in Kuala Lumpur light candles during a ceremony held for the missing flight's passengers on March 27, 2014.

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Photos:The search for MH370

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, center, delivers a statement about the flight on March 24, 2014. Razak's announcement came after the airline sent a text message to relatives saying it "deeply regrets that we have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH 370 has been lost and that none of those onboard survived."

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Grieving relatives of missing passengers leave a hotel in Beijing on March 24, 2014.

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A passenger views a weather map in the departures terminal of Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 22, 2014.

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Photos:The search for MH370

A Chinese satellite captured this image, released on March 22, 2014, of a floating object in the Indian Ocean, according to China's State Administration of Science. It was a possible lead in the search for the missing plane. Surveillance planes were looking for two objects spotted by satellite imagery in remote, treacherous waters more than 1,400 miles from the west coast of Australia.

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Photos:The search for MH370

Satellite imagery provided by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority on March 20, 2014, showed debris in the southern Indian Ocean that could have been from Flight 370. The announcement by Australian officials raised hopes of a breakthrough in the frustrating search.

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Another satellite shot provided by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority shows possible debris from the flight.

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A distraught relative of a missing passenger breaks down while talking to reporters at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 19, 2014.

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On March 18, 2014, a relative of a missing passenger tells reporters in Beijing about a hunger strike to protest authorities' handling of information about the missing jet.

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U.S. Navy crew members assist in search-and-rescue operations in the Indian Ocean on March 16, 2014.

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Members of the Chinese navy continue search operations on March 13, 2014. After starting in the sea between Malaysia and Vietnam, the plane's last confirmed location, search efforts expanded west into the Indian Ocean.

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A Vietnamese military official looks out an aircraft window during search operations March 13, 2014.

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Malaysian air force members look for debris near Kuala Lumpur on March 13, 2014.

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Relatives of missing passengers wait for the latest news at a hotel in Beijing on March 12, 2014.

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A member of the Vietnamese air force checks a map while searching for the missing plane on March 11, 2014.

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Photos:The search for MH370

A Vietnamese air force plane found traces of oil that authorities had suspected to be from the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, the Vietnamese government online newspaper reported on March 8, 2014. However, a sample from the slick showed it was bunker oil, typically used to power large cargo ships, Malaysia's state news agency, Bernama, reported on March 10, 2014.

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A U.S. Navy Seahawk helicopter lands aboard the USS Pinckney to change crews on March 9, 2014, before returning to search for the missing plane in the Gulf of Thailand.

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Buddhist monks at Kuala Lumpur International Airport offer a special prayer for the missing passengers on March 9, 2014.

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Members of a Chinese emergency response team board a rescue vessel at the port of Sanya in China's Hainan province on March 9, 2014.

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The rescue vessel sets out from Sanya in the South China Sea on March 9, 2014.

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Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, center, arrives to meet family members of missing passengers at the reception center at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 8, 2014.

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A relative of two missing passengers reacts at their home in Kuala Lumpur on March 8, 2014.

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A metal object that washed ashore in Western Australia and sparked the curiosity of investigators Wednesday turned out to be unrelated.

And while the Bluefin-21 plunged into the Indian Ocean for its 13th mission Friday, no one was certain the drone would find anything new.

The underwater probe has already scanned 95% of the designated search area, with no significant results.

Friday marks day 49 of the search for the plane, which disappeared on March 8 on a flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing.

What's next?

Malaysian and Australian authorities are mapping out a long-term strategy for the search, which could go on for months or years.

An expanded search area might include the last 370 miles (595 kilometers) of the plane's flight path, ocean search specialist Rob McCallum said.

"If the idea is to go more strategic and investigate the entire aircraft flight path, maybe 15 miles or so either side, then you need a more strategic tool, and something like a deep-towed sonar that can provide a very large range indeed -- at the expense of resolution."

The use of a deep-towed submersible device called the Orion is overdue, said Geoffrey Thomas, managing director of AirlineRatings.com.

"That should be brought in as quickly as possible, again, from the United States."

He said it may be time to go back and revisit the calculations of where the plane may be, although officials have already been doing that.

"This is not an exact science," Thomas said. "We have to understand that."

Why so private?

Malaysia has not been known as a model of transparency. The same political party has ruled the country for the past 50 years, and the media is not completely free.

For its part, the Malaysian Cabinet has agreed to have an international team investigate the disappearance of Flight 370, the country's acting transportation minister said.

Hishammuddin Hussein said the names of the members will be announced next week. He also said the team will not be looking into the criminal aspects of the investigation, which remain under the Royal Malaysian Police.

"The main purpose is to evaluate and determine the cause of the accident," Hishammuddin said.